Great Links

There are so many mediocre science project sites on the internet that it can
be difficult to find the good ones. Many sites just steal other people’s
ideas and you see a lot of the same tired projects over and over. And many
sites are so obsessed with making money that the fun science gets buried. They
use slick tricks to make videos “successful” (and profitable, with
advertising) in attracting eyeballs. But for someone viewing those videos and
actually making the project, they are useless.

Ah, but then there are the gems! There are some people who are obviously passionate
about their work and it shows in the quality. Each of these sites has it’s
own personality and style.

Most of the sites below will never have a “viral” video because
the very qualities that make for a good science project video—helpful
details; addressing the science, giving credit to previous work done by other
people; asking viewers to actually do something rather than passively watch--assure
that they will never get millions of views. Most viral “science” videos
are about blowing something up with lots of testosterone and little educational
value—and a huge proportion of them are outright hoaxes.

It behooves us to let people know about these good sites then. SPREAD THE
WORD! Perhaps you’ll
even drop them an e-mail of encouragement because they’re not just doing
it for the money.

Arvind Gupta

A team of inspired educators in India has put together photographic instructions
and videos for hundreds of clever toys; most from recycled or very
inexpensive to buy materials for. Most have a science theme. The "Do it
details" link
at the bottom of each project page gives detailed, print-friendly instructions.
Most have a video link, too. Sometimes
they are sloppy about using other people's work and not attributing the source.
But there is a lot of brilliant, original work, too and the site gets better
all the time. A good first stop for any educator looking for simple, easy hands-on
projects.

Eploratorium Science "Snacks" (science activities you can do at
home)

The Exploratorium science museum of San Francisco has set the standard for
inspired science exploration since its inception. They surely have inspired
me. Some of these "snacks" are versions of famous exhibits that you
can make at home. The snacks are well thought out, refined and all around high
quality. Poke around the rest of the Exploratorium site, too. There's always
something interesting. Click on:

Hila Science Online

This Canadian tackles astronomy, natural science (he even keeps honey bees
and shows how to extract honey), electronics and mechanical devices and lots
more. I particularly enjoy his historical investigations, like building Bell’s
first telephone or calculating longitude, that let us vicariously travel back
in time and experience inventions. Even cerebral projects in, say, astronomy
or
electricity
are clear
because he presents it so well and is savvy with video editing tools that illustrate
his concepts so helpfully. https://www.youtube.com/user/ScienceOnline/videos

Grandad is an Old Man

Grandad makes all sorts of projects for the enjoyment of his grandkids. Lucky
kids—and lucky us, because this Brit takes us along for the ride with
his camera. He is an extraordinary hacker, repurposing inexpensive and recycled
stuff into something completely different. And he tries out projects from the
Internet and we get to see if the instructions live up to their promise so
we don’t waste our time. There are hundreds of videos and the variety
is amazing, but he has them categorized in playlists so it’s easy to
navigate. https://www.youtube.com/user/GrandadIsAnOldMan/featured

Rimstar.org

I first became aware of this site when RimStar started making esoteric electrical
projects accessible to regular people. He obviously demonstrates an electrical
engineering background, but the subject matter now is wide ranging and always
high quality. He doesn’t dumb-down the projects. Instead he lifts us
up by educating about how stuff works. With his considerable editing skills
he is showing us as much as telling us. And this Canadian site shows the helpful
details—even the things that he tried that didn’t work—that
insure success when we build it.https://www.youtube.com/user/RimstarOrg

Science Hobbyist

This site is...umm... a little different. But who can resist such lofty scientific
pursuits as "Unwise Microwave Oven Experiments" or "Evil genius
hi-tech practical joke ideas" and "Childhood brain-modification techniques" or "The
DisgustoScope?" At first blush you'll think this guy is mad as a hatter,
but when you sniff around awhile you'll find loads of really high quality stuff
by a brilliant and dedicated scientist who "learned to 'dance' with the
subject." And you'll never think of science as dry and dull again. Click
on:

Ideas-Inspire.com

Bill Kuhl (pronounced "cool") has created a remarkable site. His
articles are both far ranging--from solar and mousetrap cars to airplanes and
water rockets--and yet detailed. I just watched the power point he created
about mousetrap cars. It discusses all the nitty gritty little things that
are so often glossed over. At last I'm becoming aware of other people who share
my belief the it's the details that matter. Bill is particularly strong with
all kinds of model airplane building and designing. http://ideas-inspire.com

Ivydale Science and Technology Service

Paul Newham travels around to London schools and works with classes of primary
students to actually make projects—every pupil makes and takes home a
project. He also creates project videos for the rest of us; they are terrific
because he’s always grounded in the logistics of making it work with
large groups of kids. Paul and people like him who go to the extra work of
creating hands-on learning experiences with young people are the true heroes
of the world.http://www.slstc.southwarklea.org.uk/how_to_make3.htm
Paul also supplies parts like pulleys, magnets, wheels, electrical,
props, construction materials, class packs, etc. very inexpensivelyhttp://www.slstc.southwarklea.org.uk/technology_shop.htm

Cornell Xraise

My friend Erik Herman does science outreach at Cornell University and has
developed some amazing projects, from dolphin ring generators to air rocket
launchers.

Scitoys

This site has an amazing variety of science toys, from a simple laser communicator
to vacuum pump, magnetic levitation to crystal radio. There is a catalog for
hard-to-find things like gallium (a liquid metal--non-toxic substitute for
mercury). Cool site!

David Williamson

David Williamson--who lives in London--is a true Renaissance man, great friend
and a wonderful teacher (seen here guest teaching in my middle school during
a visit).

At his YouTube channel you will find creative projects from Sterling and steam
engines to drawing bots; balloon-powered helicopters to solar-powered mobiles--made
from cheap or recycled stuff.https://www.youtube.com/user/davidvwilliamson
Most of the videos are linked to a web page with more details, or you can go
directly to the index herehttp://durealeyes.com/
Sniff around the website--lots of stories, nooks and crannies.
To see some very short (1 or 2 MB) videos (I made these before there was YouTube)of
some of his kinetic projects, click here.

King of Random/Grant Thompson

Grant Thompson’s channel might be the only one to have viral videos
(and crass commercialism) AND high quality coexisting together. He must have
put a lot of time experimenting to have gotten the results. When he builds
on other people’s work, he seems to be attributing it and improving it.

Spark Bang Buzz

My introduction to
Nyle Steiner's work was this amazing hybrid of static electricity levitation and glider, yet simple to make with good instructions (note that static electicity projects work better in cool, dry weather (winter).http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-jRxBfo7cU
but there are other quirky imaginaative projects, particularly electronics, His website

Make/Makezine/Makerfaires

Given the footprint and success of Make publications, videos and events, it
hardly seems necessary to mention them. The trick is sifting through the sheer
volume. Certain subjects dominate--like 3-D printers/ quadracopters/ Aruino/
Radio Shack projects--but there's an amazing diversity of other high quality
projects too if you take the time to look.

Experimentatori

I think I have a twin brother. Mr.Stanislav Horvath, a Slovakian teacher 1).
likes science toys, 2.) creates videos about how to make them, and 3.) includes
his students in the videos. And it's almost like we share the same mind. I
worked on a video with students about making a small hot air balloon for months.
Experimentatori uploaded his video just before I put up mine. Our methods differed
slightly, but were amazingly similar. Great creativity here. Language understanding
could be a problem. However, the videos are so well made that even not understanding
a word of Slovak, I understand most of what's going on. This is the link to
his page of YouTube videos http://www.youtube.com/user/experimentator

Kitchen Science Experiments

By now we know that many scientists are a bit eccentric, and the Brits...well, you know...double dose! So don't panic when I say this excellent British site-- associated with Cambridge University-- is created by a group calling themselves the Naked Scientists (" to strip science down to the bare essentials, and promote it to the general public.") Get it? Nothing objectionable to worry about after all.

Jose Pino

Here's another fun, scrappy labor-of-love site by Jose Pino. http://www.josepino.com/other_projects/
I especially like the Beakman motor, thermometer, barometer, toothpick designs,
and who could forget the pinwheels--still have to try some of the others.

NurdRage

There’s not much chemistry on sciencetoymaker, but why bother when such a quality site as NurdRage has that covered? Find here all the nitty-gritty details of making glow sticks, solar cells, glow-in-the-dark powder, galvanizing metal, flash crystals, dissolving glass and, yes, lots of ways to make fire without matches. There’s some cool physics, too, about making things levitate. Best of all, he’s a master of using serendipitous moments to explain further what’s happening, and I even detect some dry humor. Who knew chemistry could be so entertaining?

The equipment and chemicals are not the sort of thing most of us have lying around, though a high school lab might. The exact identity of the alpha nerd is a mystery, but he goes by Dr. N. Butyl Lithium, and he’s a Canadian research scientist working in the field of organometallic chemistry. Whoever he is, we’re all fortunate that he takes the time and effort to turn on hundreds of thousands of people around the world to science.

Fun Science

This Fun Science site appears to be from Italy, well translated into English.
I first became aware of the site when I stumbled across its historic glass sphere
microscope. Indeed, two thirds of the items are about microscopy and optics.

Howtoons

This is what you get when
a couple of MIT grad students meet a comic book creator. The marshmallow blowgun
and the balloon hovercraft are my favorites. Instructables (see above) took them over.

Puzzle Parade

Wow, I wish I got holiday cards from Mr. Eggers, the paper engineer who has
created this how-to site!
Maybe if enough of us ask nicely he will work on the "under construction"
projects.

Overflight

This site is all about making hot
air balloons out of thin plastic dry cleaner's bags heated and sent aloft
with birthday
candles. Tom takes a serious approach to the hot air balloons and really delves
into the science and the math that makes them work. Obviously people need
to
exercise caution with these, but why shun them altogether? I also have a plastic
bag hot air balloon project that that details bag thicknes--an important but
often overlooked consideration. Too thick and it's too heavy to fly.

Joel Henriques

Here are some more great projects for very young kids. One could say that
Joel Henriques' blog is more art than science. But when you get to projects
for very young kids the already blurred line between art and science gets even
more nebulous. And whatever you call it, they are quality projects. This Oregonian
has 3 year old twin daughters and he makes wonderful things with them. The
link is to a fish cutout, lots more if you look around..

Honorable Mention: Grand Illusions

HALL OF SHAME

Having the seen the best of the best, here’s what they’re up against--obviously
intelligent people who have completely sold their souls. These parasites deliberately
disguise themselves as science project builders—but deliver lies and
frustration to anyone who actually tries to follow the "instructions". That’s
why we
need to promote the real, quality sites.

Viral Video Lab

The ViralVideoLab channel on YouTube is a series of hoaxes presented as DIY
science projects. He uses his considerable video skills to deceive rather than
inform—the hoaxes look real, although it’s really the same pony
trick over and over. Then he goes even further to where it’s out and
out mean-spirited. For example, I have put a lot of effort into introducing
people to walkalong gliders. VVL steals my paper design and makes it “fly” with
a model car going around on a track. Flying a walkalong glider looks like magic,
but you cannot do that. And here’s the mean-spirited part: He gives all
sorts of details like, “Please note: the angle of the spoiler should
be at 45 +/- 10 degrees (the size of the spoiler needs to be DINA4. Make sure
your paper airplane is trimmed to do a constant right turn, otherwise it won´t
work.”
That sounds like the kind of detail that I would include for insuring success,
but VVL is using it to further perpetuate the hoax. Can you imagine some kid
earnestly trying to follow the directions and wondering what’s the mater
with him/her that they can’t get it to work? Its hurtful, shameful behavior.

DaveHax

DaveHax is a serial thief. At his best he steals other people’s ideas,
repackages them with superlatives and hype, and makes thousands of dollars
partnering with YouTube to sell advertising. But when he stole my pop pop boat
design, he changed it into essentially a hoax. First, since he had to make
it look like he had added something, he assures us that you can use BlueTack
instead of epoxy to seal the steam engine. But it’s almost impossible
to stop the leaks; and completely impossible once the BlueTack gets wet and
stops sticking. By the end of the video he allows as how you could use epoxy
(the original sciencetoymaker.org method) to make it “last much longer”.
So much for innovation.

When he shows how to use epoxy, there’s no way to do it his way without
getting sticky epoxy on your fingers and everywhere else. And he shows the
engine seam side down. It’s no coincidence that he shows the epoxy boat
outdoors: the way it’s made will burn epoxy, and the smell of burned
epoxy would make a mortician gag. Heaven help anyone who tries to build an
engine his way.

I would be the first to admit that my original instructions were too long—22
steps—and crude video production. But lots of people successfully made
them and showed them on YouTube. Better to have too much detail than not enough.
I am working on instructions for a simple simpler, easier to make design.

You might find it amusing that I’m bent out of shape about a science
toy, but if you were in my shoes you would see why. I started making pop pop
engines with my students in the 1990s. First we made the classic form that
has been around for over a hundred year—with a brass diaphragm soldered
to a pressed boiler, pipes, etc. First I used the same design, but substituted
aluminum and epoxy. After years of experimenting and going down many dead ends
I completely redesigned the engine to use only an aluminum can, straws and
epoxy. I uploaded instructions on YouTube in 2009, non-commercially (no advertising).
In 2013 DaveHax scooped up years of my work and uploaded his dumbed-down version
of my steam engine design with no attribution but with plenty of advertising